What are customer needs?

A customer need is a motive that prompts a customer to buy a product or service. Ultimately, the
need is the driver of the customer's purchase decision. Companies often look at the customer
need as an opportunity to resolve or contribute surplus value back to the original motive.
An example of customer need takes place every day around 12:00 p.m. This is when people
begin to experience hunger (need) and decide to purchase lunch. The type of food, the location of
the restaurant, and the amount of time the service will take are all factors to how individuals
decide to satisfy the need.
Customer-centric companies know that solving for customer needs and exceeding expectations
along the way is how to drive healthy business growth and foster good relationships with the
people your company serves.
Although customer centricity is not a new concept, the right steps to achieve a customer service
focus are still hazy.
Creating a customer-centric company that truly listens to customer needs can be daunting, and
there's a steep learning curve if you haven't paid close attention to customers before.
So to steer you in the right direction, here's a beginner's guide that defines the types of customer
needs to look for, unpacks common barriers that prevent companies from fulfilling their
customers' needs, and discloses solutions to start improving customer service.
Below are the most common types of customer needs — most of which work in tandem with one
another to drive a purchasing decision.

16 Most Common Types of Customer Needs

Product Needs
1. Functionality
Customers need your product or service to function the way they need in order to solve their
problem or desire.
2. Price
Customers have unique budgets with which they can purchase a product or service.
3. Convenience
Your product or service needs to be a convenient solution to the function your customers are
trying to meet.
4. Experience
The experience using your product or service needs to be easy — or at least clear — so as not to
create more work for your customers.
5. Design
Along the lines of experience, the product or service needs a slick design to make it relatively
easy and intuitive to use.
6. Reliability
The product or service needs to reliably function as advertised every time the customer wants to
use it.
7. Performance
The product or service needs to perform correctly so the customer can achieve their goals.
8. Efficiency
The product or service needs to be efficient for the customer by streamlining an otherwise time-
consuming process.
9. Compatibility
The product or service needs to be compatible with other products your customer is already
using.
Service Needs
10. Empathy
When your customers get in touch with customer service, they want empathy and understanding
from the people assisting them.
11. Fairness
From pricing to terms of service to contract length, customers expect fairness from a company.
12. Transparency
Customers expect transparency from a company they're doing business with. Service outages,
pricing changes, and things breaking happen, and customers deserve openness from the
businesses they give money to.
13. Control
Customers need to feel like they're in control of the business interaction from start to finish and
beyond, and customer empowerment shouldn't end with the sale. Make it easy for them to return
products, change subscriptions, adjust terms, etc.
14. Options
Customers need options when they're getting ready to make a purchase from a company. Offer a
variety of product, subscription, and payment options to provide that freedom of choice.
15. Information
Customers need information, from the moment they start interacting with your brand to days and
months after making a purchase. Businesses should invest in educational blog content,
instructional knowledge base content, and regular communication so customers have the
information they need to successfully use a product or service.
16. Accessibility
Customers need to be able to access your service and support teams. This means providing
multiple channels for customer service. We'll talk a little more about these options later.
If companies can begin to make changes before their customers' needs aren't fulfilled, this can
ultimately lead to growth, innovation, and retention. However, with many types of customer
needs, how do you understand which ones apply to your customers specifically?

How to Identify Customer Needs

1. Use Existing Data
2. Solicit Customer Feedback
3. Customer Journey Mapping
4. Input from Service Team
5. Study Competitors
6. Social Media Listening
7. Keyword Research
You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology," Steve
Jobs notably stated. "You cannot start with the technology and try to figure out where you are
going to sell it."
Whether you sell technology or some other product or service, the underlying message he's
saying here rings true.
This means understanding where they're coming from when they've chosen to make a purchase,
what expectations they're bringing to the table, and what bumps they'll encounter along the way.
You can gain more knowledge about what your customers want using a few different strategies.
1. Use Existing Data
Most likely you have some customer data already, especially if you’re using a CRM. This is the
best place to start your search. Are there pain points or issues you can glean from just looking at
this customer data? Are there any patterns you can identify? Taking note of who your current
customers are and their past interactions with your brand to get a better idea of where customers
are coming from and if you’re meeting their needs.
2. Solicit Customer Feedback
When trying to identify consumer needs, go straight to the source. This can be done using
surveys that live on your site, or sent via email. Additionally you could conduct focus groups to
gain more in depth insight to customer needs and their overall experience with your product or
service.
3. Customer Journey Mapping
To better understand and assist customers, you’ll need to first know what phase of the customer
journey they are in and what they’re looking for. This is where customer journey mapping can
help, giving a visual representation of how customers interact with your brand. This exercise will
help you create a more proactive customer service approach and improve retention.
4. Input from Service Team
In addition to getting customer feedback, it’s important to consult those who work with them
most — your service team. They’ll often have insights you may not be privy to and can help you
anticipate the needs of your customers as well as solve existing issues. They’ll also be able to
explain how customers are currently using your product or service and can identify any hiccups
in the process.
5. Study Competitors
It’s common to study competitors when conducting market research, but you should also
consider them when identifying customer needs. There might be overlap in your target audience,
meaning your brand could benefit from reviewing any issues competitors are experiencing and
gain insight on how they went about fixing it. You might find that some of their strategies would
be worth implementing at your company, or discover gaps in service that your company can fill.
6. Use Social Media
Chances are, your customers use a variety of social media platforms in their day to day. Take
advantage of that by using it as a way to listen in on what customers are saying about your
products and your competitors. Are people asking questions under your posts? What sorts of
comments are they making? Are they giving praise, asking for assistance, or do they want new
features? Using a social media monitoring tool like Hootsuite will help you identify trends,
mentions, and hashtags relevant to your brand to better inform your strategy.
7. Keyword Research
People turn to the internet for most things, so Google is an excellent resource for figuring out
customer needs. How are customers finding your brand online and what are they typing into the
search box to find it? Doing keyword research can give you a broad overview of what your
customers need based on search data. Keyword research will also help you optimize your site for
search engines by aligning the content of your site with what customers are searching for.
If you design your process with these things in mind, you'll be able to uncover consumer needs at
any stage of their lifecycle. You can take a deeper dive into their needs by conducting a customer
needs analysis.
What is a customer needs analysis?
A customer needs analysis is used in product development and branding to provide an in-depth
analysis of the customer to ensure that the product or message offers the benefits, attributes, and
features needed to provide the customer with value.
To conduct a customer needs analysis successfully, you need to do the following:
1. Customer Needs Analysis Survey
The customer needs analysis is typically conducted by running surveys that help companies
figure out their position in their respective competitive markets and how they stack up in terms
of meeting their target customers' needs.
The survey should primarily ask questions about your brand and competitors, as well as
customers' product awareness and brand attitudes in general.
Questions can include:
 Questions about positive and negative word associations with your brand
 Questions asking customers to group your brand in with similar and/or competing brands
 Questions comparing and sorting brands according to their preferences for usage
2. Means-End Analysis
Once you've conducted the customer needs analysis survey, you can use the answers to get a
fuller picture of the reasons why your customers purchase from you, and what makes your
product or service stand apart from your competitors'.
A means-end analysis analyzes those answers to determine the primary reasons why a customer
would buy your product. Those buyer reasons can be divided into three main groups:
1. Features: A customer buys a product or service because of the features included in the
purchase. If the customer were buying a computer, for example, they might buy it because it's
smaller and more lightweight than other options.
2. Benefits: A customer buys a product or service because of a benefit, real or perceived, they
believe it will offer them. The customer might also buy the computer because it syncs easily with
their other devices wirelessly.
3. Values: A customer buys a product or service for unique, individual values, real or perceived,
they believe it will help them fulfill. The customer might think the computer will help them to be
more creative or artistic and unlock other personal or professional artistic opportunities.
As you might imagine, these reasons for purchasing something can vary from customer to
customer, so it's important to conduct these customer surveys, collect the answers, and group
them into these three categories. From there, you can identify which of those motivating factors
you're solving for, and which you can improve on to make your product or service even more
competitive in the market.
3. Customer Feedback
If you want to know what your customers think about the experience of working with your
company, ask them. Interviewing your customers and members of your service team can
contribute to a customer needs analysis and improvements to your customer lifecycle.
As you gather data from your customer needs analysis, it's important to identify the points of
friction that your customers experience and the moments in their journey that provide
unexpected delight.
 What can your company change?
 What are the elements that you can build from?
 What parts of the experience needs to be worked on?
Asking these questions can lead you to valuable insights as you work to solve for your
customers.
How to Solve for Customer Needs
The first step to solving for your customers is to put yourself in their shoes: If you were the
customer when we purchase your goods, use your technology, or sign up for your services, what
would prevent you from achieving ultimate value?
Your customer needs analysis is a good starting point for getting in the mind of your customer,
especially when it comes to identifying common pain points. From there, you can build a
proactive plan to implement your customer-first values throughout the customer lifecycle. Here
are some tips for doing so:
1. Offer consistent company-wide messaging.
Too often customers get caught up in the "he said, she said" game of being told a product can do
one thing from sales and another from support and product. Ultimately, customers become
confused and are left with the perception that the company is disorganized.
Consistent internal communications across all departments is one of the best steps towards a
customer-focused mindset. If the entire company understands its goals, values, product, and
service capabilities, then the messages will easily translate to meet the customers’ needs.
To get everyone on the same page, organize sales and customer service meetings, send out new
product emails, provide robust new employee onboarding, and require quarterly training and
seminars or staff hosted webinars to share important projects.
2. Provide instructions for easy adoption.
Customers purchase a product because they believe it will meet their needs and solve their
problem. However, adoption setup stages are not always clear. If best practices aren't specified at
the start and they don't see value right away, it's an uphill battle to gain back their trust and undo
bad habits.
A well-thought-out post-purchase strategy will enable your products or services to be usable and
useful.
One way companies gain their customers' attention is providing in-product and email
walkthroughs and instructions as soon as the customer receives a payment confirmation. This
limits the confusion, technical questions, and distractions from the immediate post-purchase
euphoria.
A customer education guide or knowledge base is essential to deliver proper customer adoption
and avoid the ‘floundering effect' when customers are stuck. Other companies provide new
customer onboarding services, host live demos and webinars and include events and promotions
in their email signatures.
3. Build feedback loops into every stage of the process.
Lean into customer complaints and suggestions, and it will change the way you operate your
business. Criticism often has negative connotations. However, if you flip problems to
opportunities you can easily improve your business to fit the customer's needs.
Just as you solicited customer feedback in your needs analysis, you can keep a pulse on how
your customers feel at scale with customer satisfaction scores, customer surveys, exploration
customer interviews, social media polls, or personal customer feedback emails.
If you're able to incorporate this into a repeatable process, you'll never be in the dark about the
state of the customer experience in your organization, and you'll be enabled to continue
improving it.
Take customer suggestions seriously and act on those recommendations to improve design,
product, and system glitches. Most customer support success metrics are paramount to the
customer experience and this mentality should trickle down to every aspect of the organization.
4. Nurture customer relationships.
When a customer buys a product or service, they want to use it right away and fulfill their
immediate need. Whether they are delighted within the first hour, week, or a month, it's
important to constantly think about their future needs.
Proactive relationship-building is essential to prevent customers from losing their post-purchase
excitement and ultimately churning. If customers stop hearing from you and you don't hear from
them this can be a bad sign that they are about to churn.
Companies solve for customer relationships with a combination of customer service structure
and communication strategies. Solve for the long-term customer need and create a customer
service team dedicated to check-ins and customer retention, show appreciation with rewards and
gifts to loyal customers, host local events, highlight employees that go above and beyond and
communicate product updates and new features.
5. Solve for the right customer needs.
Excluding customers from your cohort of business can seem counterintuitive to solve for your
customers' needs. However, understanding whose needs you can fulfill and whose you cannot is
a major step toward solving the right problems. All customers' needs can't be treated equally and
a company must recognize which problems they can solve and ones that aren't aligned with their
vision.
To find the right customer priorities, create buyer personas and uncover consumer trends, look at
customer's long-term retention patterns, establish a clear company vision, provide premier
customer service to valuable customers and communicate with your ideal customer in their
preferred social media space to capture questions, comments and suggestions.
Successful startups, brick and mortar shops, and Fortune 500 companies alike all solve and
prioritize customer needs to stay ahead and establish industry trends.
6. Provide great customer service.
If a problem arises, your customers want to get it resolved and feel heard in the process. This
starts with being able to meet their needs with empathy, but along the way, the process for
obtaining support should be easy and on a channel that's convenient for them.
Some customer needs are time-sensitive and require immediate interaction via phone or chat.
Others are less critical and can be resolved at a more casual pace. Let's break down the types of
customer service and how each optimizes your team's ability to fulfill customer needs.
Types of Customer Service
1. Email
2. Phone
3. Chat
4. Social Media
5. In Person
6. Call Back Service
7. Customer Self-Service
8. Interactive Virtual Assistant
9. Integrated Customer Service
1. Email
Email is one of the most fundamental forms of customer service. It allows customers to fully
describe their problems, and it automatically records the conversation into a resourceful thread.
Customers only have to explain their issue once, while reps can reference important case details
without having to request additional information.
Email is best used with customer needs that don't need to be resolved right away. Customers can
ask their question, go back to work, and return to the case once the service rep has found a
solution. Unlike phones or chat, they don't have to wait idly while a rep finds them an answer.
One limitation of email is the potential lack of clarity. Some customers have trouble describing
their problem, and some service reps struggle to explain solutions. This creates time-consuming
roadblocks when the issue is overly complex. To be safe, use email for simple problems that
require a brief explanation or solution.
2. Phone
When customers have problems that need to be answered immediately, phones are the best
medium to use. Phones connect customers directly to reps and create a human interaction
between the customer and the business. Both parties hear each other's tone and can gauge the
severity of the situation. This human element is a major factor in creating delightful customer
experiences.
Phones come in handy most when there's a frustrated or angry customer. These customers are
most likely to churn and require your team to provide a personalized solution. Your team can
use soft communication skills to appease the customer and prevent costly escalations. These
responses appear more genuine on the phone because reps have less time to formulate an answer.
The most common flaw with phone support is the wait time. Customers hate being put on hold,
and it's a determining factor for customer churn.
3. Chat
Chat is one of the most flexible customer service channels. It can solve a high volume of simple
problems or provide detailed support for complex ones. Businesses continue to adopt chat
because of its versatility as well as the improvement in efficiency it provides for customer
service reps.
When it comes to solving customer needs, chat can be used to solve almost any problem. Simple
and common questions can be answered with chatbots that automate the customer service
process. For more advanced roadblocks, reps can integrate customer service tools into their chat
software to help them diagnose and resolve issues.
The limitations of chat are similar to those of email. However, since the interaction is live, any
lack of clarity between the two parties can drastically impact troubleshooting. As a former chat
rep, there were plenty of times where I struggled to get on the same page as my customer. Even
though we resolved the issue, that miscommunication negatively impacted the customer's
experience.
4. Social Media
Social media is a relatively new customer service channel. While it's been around for over a
decade, businesses are now beginning to adopt it as a viable service option. That's because social
media lets customers immediately report an issue. And since that report is public, customer
service teams are more motivated to resolve the customer's problem.
Social media is an excellent channel for mass communication, which is particularly useful during
a business crisis. When a crisis occurs, your customers' product and service needs become the
primary concern of your organization. Social media is an effective tool for communicating with
your customers in bulk. With a social media crisis management plan, your team can continue to
fulfill customer needs during critical situations.
Social media is different from other types of customer service because it empowers the customer
the most. Customers tend to have more urgent needs and expect instant responses from your
accounts. While this type of service presents an enormous opportunity, it also places tremendous
pressure on your reps to fulfill customer demand. Be sure your team is equipped with
proper social media management tools before you offer routine support.
5. In Person
As the oldest form of customer service, you're probably familiar with working in person with
customers. Brands who have brick-and-mortar stores must offer this service for customers living
near their locations. This fulfills a convenience need as customers can purchase and return a
product without having to ship it back to the company through an online service.
In-person customer service is great for businesses with strong service personnel. Without
dedicated employees, your customer service team won't be able to fulfill your customers' product
or service needs. Successful teams have reps who are determined to provide above-and-beyond
customer service.
5. Call Back Service
Sometimes it's not about how quickly your business can provide a solution, but rather how
efficient you can make the service experience. For example, say a customer has a simple
question about pricing that should only take a few minutes to answer, but their expected wait
time for phone service is over 15 minutes. Rather than making this customer spend more time on
hold than actually speaking with a representative, you can offer a call back service where your
team reaches out to the customer as soon as the next rep is available.
Another situation where this type of service comes in handy is with text-based mediums like
email and live chat. In some cases, these channels aren't ideal for troubleshooting and can lead to
friction if the case isn't transferred to another platform. Having a call back service available
allows customers to schedule time to speak directly with reps, particularly when they feel like
they aren't gaining progress on their case. Instead of having to create a completely new support
ticket, call backs seamlessly transition the conversation to a more effective channel.
6. Customer Self-Service
Self-service teaches your customers how to solve problems independently from your support
team. Rather than calling or emailing your business whenever they need assistance, customers
can navigate to your knowledge base and access resources that help them troubleshoot issues on
their own. Not only does this get customers faster solutions, but it also saves them from having
to open a ticket with your team. This makes the experience feel much less like a formal support
case and more like a quick roadblock that your customers can handle on their own.
Self-service is advantageous for your team's productivity as well. If more customers use your
knowledge base, less will call or email your team for help. This will free your reps up more to
focus on complex service cases that require a longer time commitment.
7. Interactive Virtual Assistant
Chatbots are no longer novelties that customer service teams use to show off their technological
prowess. Now, they're integral pieces of support strategies as they act more like interactive
virtual assistants than simple, question-and-answer bots. Today's chatbots are powered by
innovative AI technology that interprets customer needs and can walk people through step-by-
step solutions.

The image above shows a perfect example of how useful today's virtual assistants can be. In this
situation, the customer is learning how to use their new car — a product that typically offers a lot
of unique features and an extensive operator's manual. To help new users navigate the car's basic
features, this brand offers an augmented reality tour hosted by a virtual assistant. The user simply
has to scroll their camera over different parts of the car and the chatbot will tell them everything
they need to know.
Interactive features like this show that you're investing in more than just product development.
You're thinking about how you'll support customers and what services you can adopt that will
make their lives easier. Customers pay attention to this type of customer service and it can often
be a reason why many will return to your business.
8. Integrated Customer Service
Integrated service can be described as all of the little things your brand does to remove pain
points from the customer experience. Some of this is proactive, like sending customers an
automated newsletter that informs them about major updates or announcements, and some of it is
reactive, like pinging a customer success manager whenever someone submits negative feedback
to your team.
Even though these pain points may seem small, they add up over time if left unchecked. The best
way to remove most of these points of friction is to adopt automation as you grow your customer
base. Automated customer service tools like ticketing systems, help desks, and workflows help
your team keep pace with increasing customer demand. This technology lets you maintain that
same level of personalized customer service even as more people reach out to your business for
support.
There's no "best" type of customer service. When used together, each medium compliments the
other and optimizes your overall performance. This creates an omni-channel experience for your
customers which will keep them coming back for more.
What do customers want from a typical customer service situation?
It’s important to note that customer service is reactive. That said, there are a few things to keep
in mind to ensure you’re providing excellent customer service.
 Listen: While it’s normal to want to quickly get customers in and out of your service queue, it’s
important to actually listen to what their issue is before giving them a solution. They may have a
more nuanced issue that a boilerplate response can’t provide. There’s nothing more frustrating
than providing customers with a canned response that doesn’t actually solve their issue.
Automation is great, but just ensure that it is helping customers.
 Don’t Make Customers Repeat Information: No one wants to answer or submit the same
questions repeatedly. Not only is it inconvenient, it shows the customer that no one is listening or
paying attention. If you have a ticketing system, review the customer’s history or profile to get
familiar with their situation before responding.
 Be Pleasant: Tone is much harder to convey over written communication and can
unintentionally come across as cold. To convey some warmth you could introduce phrases like
“I’d be happy to help with that,” or “Hope your day/week is going well.”
 Be Responsive: Not only do customers want their problem solved, but they prefer it’s resolved
quickly. If you can’t solve their issue easily when they first contact you, set expectations around
when it will be resolved (24hrs, 2 business days?) and keep them in the loop. Don’t ghost them.
What Customers Want
1. Simple Solutions
2. Personalization
3. Value
4. Transparency
5. Accessibility
Each customer has their own unique needs, but there are a few that are universal.
1. Simple Solutions
While your product or service may run using a complex set of algorithms and procedures,
customers don’t need to know that. They simply want a solution that resolves their issue with as
little fuss as possible. Keep your messaging simple and focus on how your brand will solve the
customer’s problem.
2. Personalization
Treat your customers like people and not numbers on a spreadsheet. Use their name in
communications and tailor your messaging to the buyer persona they most closely align with.
Adding a personal touch when it comes to marketing lets customers know that their needs are at
the forefront of your brand’s mission.
3. Value
Does your product or service outperform the competition or provide a more cost effective
solution for consumers? If so, drive that point home in your messaging. Explain how and why
they should choose your product or service over others on the market. How will customers
benefit when they choose your brand?
4. Transparency
One of the easiest ways to build trust with consumers is to be transparent. No one wants to feel
duped by disingenuous, bait-and-switch advertising. Be honest about your product or service’s
capabilities and pricing whenever possible.
5. Accessibility
While it is always encouraged to empower customers to help themselves with features like a
knowledge base, getting extra assistance when they need it shouldn’t be difficult. Whether it’s
phone, email, or chat support, it’s important to be responsive to consumer needs. At the
beginning of this article we identified accessibility as one of the most common types of customer
needs. If your team is unresponsive to their needs, customers will trade your brand in for a
competitor that fills the gap.
Understanding Customer Needs and Expectations
One of the best things you can do is continue learning based on the types of issues that come up
so that you can proactively address consumer needs and continue improving on the experience.
While the process requires quite a bit of legwork, the results will be instrumental in the success
of your brand. Once you understand customer needs and expectations, you can work towards
delighting them with your product.

Technical environments are those in which organizations produce a product or service that is

exchanged in a market such that they are rewarded for effective and efficient performance".
(Scott p. 132). These environments foster more rational structures, and in the pure sense are
perfect economies.
The technological environment is part of the company’s external environment related to
developments and changes in technology. Further, the word ‘technology’ is usually associated
with technique and equipment. Their change raises threats and opportunities for the company.
Technical requirements, otherwise known as technical specifications or specs, refer to the
implemented solutions professionals use to resolve technical problems and issues involving
software. Setting clear technical requirements is an essential step in the software and system
development process. Learning about technical requirements can provide you with a fundamental
understanding of how they work within the software development industry. In this article, we
discuss what technical requirements are, why they are important and review 17 examples.
What are technical requirements?
When working on a project or creating software, technical requirements describe the technical
aspects and issues that you need to address for the project or software to work and execute
successfully. These technical aspects can refer to factors like performance-related concerns, how
reliable the software is and how readily accessible it is. Essentially, technical requirements
function as solutions to technical issues.
For example, you created an online word processing software and developed it so it only works
for a specific web browser because of an important integration system that allows your software
to function properly on that web browser. In this scenario, having to use the software in a
specific browser is the technical requirement.
Why is it important to have technical requirements?
Technical requirements are important because they describe how software should function and
what its behavior should be. This helps developers and users to understand the best way to use
the software. A document of clearly defined specifications helps to create a project or software
that has a proper process for implementation. Developers and other technicians refer to this as
technical requirement documentation.
The purpose or look of a technical requirement document may vary depending on the specific
project, but they need to all perform for the same universal goal. That is, to ensure that the
owners of the software and its developers have an established understanding of its future details
and project estimations. Project estimations refer to an important part of project planning that
involves cost estimates, resource allocating and the duration of development. Knowing what
technical requirements you need for your software can help you determine these factors more
precisely.
17 Technical requirements
Technical requirements vary depending on the product or industry. Though there is no all-
encompassing list of technical requirements that apply to every project or development, here is a
sample list of 17 technical requirement examples:
Accessibility
Accessibility refers to a technical requirement that seeks to make a service, software or
technology accessible to all users and parties. Adding closed captions to a tutorial video for users
who are hard of hearing or deaf is an example of an accessibility technical requirement.
Authentication and authorization
This is a technical requirement that states that a system must abide by certain authentication and
authorization policies. Authentication refers to assessing data as valid and authorization provides
clearance for users to access it.
Availability
Availability is a technical requirement that functions more like a metric. This metric tracks time
as a percentage and verifies how long a software or resource is available for users to operate.
Data quality
Data quality is a technical requirement that refers to data and information that is of a certain
quality. Ideally, you want high-quality data that you can use for operational and decision-making
processes.
Human error
This is a technical requirement where software can detect when people have inputted inaccurate
information. If the software detects this error, it notifies the user and advises them to fix the
discrepancy.
Information security
This technical requirement refers to the encryption and security of user credentials and personal
private information within an online storage base or transit system. This level of security would
also involve a requirement for encrypting highly classified information as well.
Internal controls
The internal controls technical requirement means that only certain users can access the
decryption keys for encrypted user and highly classified data. These individuals, called data
stewards, can only access the data when a higher official allows it.
Interoperability
The interoperability technical requirement states that software must offer comprehensive
compatibility. This means that it needs to work on all the major operating systems, web browsers
and technical devices. These requirements may function based on the technology needs of
customers.
Maintainability
Maintainability simply means that software must maintain its integrity. To elaborate, a system
needs to identify and resolve technical problems in a set timeframe. Most repairs need to resolve
in only an hour.
Performance
The performance technical requirement determines average wait times and how long it takes for
software or a page to load. For example, it is best practice to set a technical requirement for loads
times to exceed only two seconds.
Privacy
Privacy refers to protecting a customer's sensitive data from internal data professionals and
employees. For example, a privacy technical requirement may not allow employees to view a
customer's social security number stored within a customer database.
Productivity
The productivity technical requirement refers to processes that allow users to be more
productive. For example, creating a system that auto generates data so users can skip inputting
data multiple times.
Reliability
Reliability refers to the average time that a system or software operates between downtimes or
failures. This a metric that averages the time for applications and services that are critical to
operations
Serviceability
Serviceability is an important technical requirement because most software and systems undergo
regular updates or some kind of modification. This technical requirement states systems must not
completely shut down when software upgrades or changes.
Standards
The standards technical requirement states that a system or software must follow and comply
with the security and architectural requirements. This refers to how to design and structure a
system for flexibility, reusability and feasibility.
System errors
When a system has an error, this technical requirement causes an error code to communicate this
discrepancy with the user. The error code gets documented within a help database and helps the
user service the incident to a swift resolution.
Vendor lock-in
Vendor lock-in is a technical requirement that means software or system is open-sourced. Open-
sourced software means that it is not owned by a proprietary or private company, but is available
to be manipulated with custom code by any user.
What is Requirements Modeling: Process & Tools & Courses | Complete Guide
Requirements modeling is a process of documenting, analyzing, and managing Requirements.
Requirements change throughout the project, so it is important to have a way to track them and
make sure everyone understands them. There are many tools and courses available to help you
with Requirements Modeling. In this article, we will discuss what Requirements Modeling is, the
different processes and tools involved in Requirements Modeling, as well as some courses that
can help you learn more about Requirements Modeling.
What is Requirements Modeling?
The technique of modeling requirements and solutions as they change through collaborative
work and cooperation is known as Requirements Modeling. You may ensure that your team
satisfies the stakeholders’ exact requirements by employing this approach of cross-functional,
self-organizing teams.
Requirements Modeling is the process of documenting, analyzing, and managing Requirements.
Requirements can be anything that a customer or user wants from a software system. They can
include functional requirements (what the system should do), non-functional requirements (such
as performance, security, etc.), as well as constraints (things that might limit what the system can
do).
The Requirements Modeling process involves three main activities:
1. Analysis: Once the Requirements have been collected, they need to be analyzed to see if
they are complete, consistent, and clear. Any inconsistencies or ambiguities should be
resolved at this stage.
2. Documentation: The Requirements should be documented in a clear and concise way.
This will ensure that everyone understands the Requirements and can refer back to them
if needed.
3. Management: Once the Requirements have been collected and documented, they need to
be managed throughout the project. This includes keeping track of changes to
Requirements, making sure everyone is aware of these changes, and ensuring that the
requirements are still being met.
Benefits of Requirements Modeling
Requirements modeling will improve the clarity of your requirements. This may have a profound
influence on the success of your software projects. The following are some of the most
significant advantages of adopting modern requirements modeling and management systems:
1. Creating simulations is a breeze
2. Automatic document generation
3. Automatics Test Conduction
4. Easy integration with development and testing tools
5. Easy requirements change management
Why is Requirements Modeling Important?
Requirements modeling is important because it helps to ensure that the Requirements for a
project are well understood by everyone involved. It also helps to identify any potential risks or
problems early on in the project, which can save time and money later on.
If you want to achieve quick, consistent, and continuous software delivery, then requirements
modeling is key. Even though this process might not give you clear-cut solutions, it will provide
you with a reliable guide for the end product. This way, your development team will have a
stronger comprehension of the product and how to develop it. Consequently, both developers and
clients can voice any concerns they may have about the product early on. By using this process
from the beginning stages of planning, you can present both your project stakeholders and
customers with a comprehensive blueprint that is easy to follow.
Any modifications that are required to match their exact demands and specifications may be
addressed in this strategy. You will decrease the chance of obstacles later on by providing
enhanced and rapid feedback at the start of the project and throughout its duration. When fresh
team members are added, it’s even more crucial. These methods can quickly provide new
workers an overview of the project from beginning to end – from conception to completion. This
allows new employees to grasp how iterations in this system are prioritized.
If Requirements are not well understood, there is a risk that they will not be met. This can lead to
the project being delayed, over budget, or even canceled. In some cases, it can also lead to legal
issues if the final product does not meet the customer’s expectations.
Requirements Modeling Techniques
There are many different tools that can be used for Requirements Modeling, depending on the
needs of the project. Some of the most popular requirements modeling tools include
 Requirements Traceability Matrix: A requirements traceability matrix is a table that
shows the relationships between requirements. It can be used to ensure that all
requirements are being met.
 Use Cases: A use case is a description of how a user will interact with the system to
achieve a specific goal. Use cases can be used to capture functional requirements. Use
cases depict the high-level functionalities that the system should be able to perform.
 User Stories: A user story is a short, simple description of a feature from the perspective
of the user. User stories can be used to capture both functional and non-functional
requirements.
 Process Flow Diagrams: A process flow diagram shows how tasks are performed in a
process. Process flow diagrams can be used to capture both functional and non-functional
requirements.
 Activity Diagram – This approach is used to address the whole business process or
system process – which may be appropriate for all sorts of users depending on the
requirement’s being functional and the type being fundamental. This approach can only
define the scope of a system or procedure, but it can’t help with detailed impact analysis.
 State Diagram – A state diagram is a more detailed approach than a flow chart. Only the
various states of an object that passes through a process flow are depicted in a state
diagram when it comes to the system’s or procedure’s elements, or the process itself. This
element, according to this viewpoint, cannot be used directly in impact analysis
calculations.
 Sequence Diagram – This is more relevant for a technical user, especially when many
processes are underway. It visualizes how processes or objects interact during a scenario
and depicts this in a graphical way. This approach adds additional value to technical users
since it can help them get down to specific technological specifications. During the
development phase, this technique is the most popular method for requirement reference,
owing to its usefulness.
Requirements Modeling Elements
Below are the different strategies of requirements modeling?
1. Flow Oriented Modeling – The data objects are transformed by the function as it is
processed.
The Flow oriented elements are
 Data Flow Model – It is a graphical technique. It is used to represent information flow.
 Control Flow Model – Large class applications require control flow modeling.
 Control Specification – The state diagram in the control specification is a sequential
specification of the behavior.
 Process Specification – The process specification is used to describe all flow model
processes.
2. Class-based Modeling – Class-based modeling represents the object. The system
manipulates the operations.
The elements of the class-based model consist of the following:
 Classes – To figure out which classes to take, underline each noun or noun clause in the
text and enter it into the table.
 Attributes – Attributes are the data objects that define a class within the context of the
problem. For example, ’employee’ is a class consisting of the name, Id, department,
designation, and salary of the employee.
 Operations – The operations describe the actions of a thing.
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
People have been using models for as long as systems modeling has existed. Models include
physical mock-ups, such as the hull of a ship’s body. Prototypes and mock-ups are examples of
physical models. And, since engineers can remember, models were created on paper in the form
of sketches, flow diagrams, and the like. Some were informal and intended to be discarded;
others utilized a more formal notation and were maintained throughout the system development
cycle.
The invention of the unified modeling language (UML) proved to be a game-changer. For those
who are unfamiliar with it: UML is a graphical general-purpose modeling language that covers
both structural and behavioral elements of a system. In a nutshell, it formalizes the use of “boxes
and arrows” to provide defined syntax and meaning.
UML Methods for Requirements Modeling
While UML has been incredibly successful, it has one negative consequence: Over time, it
becomes very large and complex. This can be intimidating for people trying to learn the
standard. Therefore, it’s essential to only use the relevant subset of UML for any given task.
Also, like spoken languages, there are different ways to use UML correctly or incorrectly. A
method outlines how the language should ideally be applied in order to limit which UML
elements are used and to what purpose.
Two popular methods for starting a UML requirements model are use cases and class diagrams.
To create a more detailed picture, the initial model is elaborated with additional information.
What this looks like in practice is described below:
 ICONIX – ICONIX is a lightweight method from the ’90s. It promised to get from
requirements to code with only four UML diagrams. For whatever reason, it is not very
widely known. I consider it very useful for small and medium-sized software projects that
are not safety-critical.
 SYSMOD – SYSMOD is more of a toolbox than a method, but it contains a number of
useful tactics for requirements modeling.
Requirements Model Structure
At first glance, UML may seem to be all about the diagrams. But if done correctly, it is a
byproduct of the modeling process – albeit a useful one. The diagram helps readers understand
the “big picture.” It serves as a map, guiding them through the model. But each symbol in the
diagram provides extensive amounts of extra information that often has no representation in the
picture. To demonstrate this, let’s look at use cases. The accompanying table below shows some
of  the information that may be included in part of the model:

Name Log-out

Actors The logged-in users

I want to be able to log out of the system so that my account cannot be accessed by
Description
anyone else during this browser session.

Preconditions The user must be logged into the system

The user initiates the log-out command. The system then logs the user out of the system
Activity
and further, displays a corresponding message.

Postcondition
The user is logged out of the system
s

Visure Requirements ALM Platform

Requirements management software that simplifies requirements gathering, traceability, and
collaboration for agile teams.
Visure Requirements Modeling
Visure Requirements is a requirements management software that helps you gather, trace, and
manage requirements for your agile projects. With its intuitive interface and powerful features,
Visure Requirements makes it easy to get started with Requirements Management and accelerate
your agile development process.
Key Features:
 Easy to use Requirements Gathering tool
 Traceability Matrix to track requirement changes
 Visual Requirements Modeling with UML Use Cases
 Collaborative Requirements Management platform for distributed teams
Benefits of using a requirements management software like Visure Requirements:
 Requirements gathering is simplified and accelerated
 Requirements traceability is improved
 Requirements changes are easier to track
 Requirements collaboration is enhanced for distributed teams.
Website Requirements
Website requirements are a list of necessary functions, capabilities, or characteristics related to
your website and the plans for creating it.  There are several types of requirements that may be
defined during the process that come together to focus and prioritize the project plan.

Types of Requirements
There are many different types of requirements documentation.  At a higher level, most can fall
within one of the following categories:

 Business Requirements define the objectives and what problems the stakeholder intends to
solve with the product.
 User Requirements describe how user expectations and how they will interact with the
product.  Use the features, functions, and content described in your scenarios to develop your
requirements. Your user scenarios should outline the tasks your users want to complete on
your site.
 Functional Requirements provide details of how a product should behave and specify what
is needed for development.
 Quality-of-Service Requirements detail what characteristics a product must maintain in
order to maintain its effectiveness and any constraints.
 Implementation Requirements are used to detail changes in process, team roles, migration
from one system to another, etc.
Using Website Requirements
Website requirements only tell you what your website must have and what it must allow users to
do. Requirements do not tell you how to design or develop the site to have those features,
functions, and content. The other design steps help you figure out how to make sure that the site
is organized, written, and designed to satisfy the requirements.
Requirements Best Practices
Requirements can begin as a phrase or one-sentence description of what the site must have or
must allow users to do but will become more detailed as you move through the process.
Requirements gathering can be complex but they help ensure project success.  The following
characterize strong requirements documents. They should be:

 Specific and not conjugate two distinct requirements

 Complete and well thought out
 Consistent with and prioritized based on the objectives outlined in governance documents
and charters
 Able to be verified during testing

What Hardware Is Needed to Build a Website?

Building a website has become a much more feasible task for the average user with the
availability of free website creation software and services. With the software readily available,
the only other things required are a few key hardware components. Luckily, highly specialized
and expensive equipment is not needed to create a website.

Computer

Most current computers and laptops have high enough specifications to be used to create a
website. The most important specification to check on the computer would be the size of the
RAM, which should be over 2GB, though more is better. This will ensure that the computer runs
quickly and smoothly, even with heavier programs such as website editors or photo editors. The
computer should have a keyboard and mouse attached and working as well.

Internet

In order to create a website, access to a high-speed Internet connection can be vital. This allows
you to transfer the files that will make up your website to the online server that will be hosting
your website, post updates on your website and look at your website live online to make sure that
it is displaying correctly.

External Hard Drive or DVDs for Backup

You should always keep a fairly current backup of your website in case there is an issue where
the site crashes or files become corrupted. You can keep this backup on an external hard drive or
a set of DVDs, depending on your preference. It is possible for an external hard drive to crash,
losing your backup, but DVDs can be more unwieldy and can also scratch causing data loss.
How often you should create a backup depends on how often you update your website, but once
a month for a regularly-updated site can be a good amount of time.

Camera

Unless your website is going to consist only of text, you will want to have a way to get some
digital photos and videos for your website. While you can buy stock photos and videos, these can
end up being expensive if you need many of them, and they may not be as specific as the shots
you need. A digital camera with video capability will allow you to take photos and videos that
can be downloaded to your computer and added to your website. Because you took the photos
and shot the videos yourself, you don't need to worry about copyright infringement of other
people's media.

Server

You will need a server computer to host your website on to make sure that it is available all the
time for anyone trying to access it. While you can set up a computer to act as a web server, this is
a highly complicated task, and it is far easier, more reliable and cost-effective to simply purchase
a hosting package from a web hosting company. They will keep and maintain the server
computer, and you will be able to access it to change files on your website.

Mobile Devices

While not necessary, many free website creation softwares allow users to adjust, update and
work on their website from a mobile device. If you are on the go often and would like to be able
to make adjustments to your site from wherever you are at, you may want to look into getting a
web-enabled smartphone or device.

System requirements

  Windows Mac requirements Linux requirements

requirements
Operating system Windows 8 or later macOS High Sierra 10.13 64-bit
or later Ubuntu 14.04+,
Debian 8+,
openSUSE 13.3+, or
Fedora Linux 24+
Processor Intel Pentium 4 or Intel Intel Pentium 4 or later
later
Memory 2 GB minimum, 4 GB recommended
Screen resolution 1280x1024 or larger
Application 1024x680 or larger
window size
Internet connection Required

Aside from a computer and an internet connection, most of the tools you need to build a website
are software programs, some of which may already be on your computer. You need a text or
HTML editor, a graphics editor, web browsers, and an FTP client to upload files to your web
server.
Choosing a Basic Text or HTML Editor
You can write HTML in a plain text editor such as Notepad in Windows 10, TextEdit and
Sublime Text on a Mac, or Vi or Emacs in Linux. You create the HTML coding for the page,
save the document as a web file, and open it in a browser to make sure it looks like it is supposed
to. 
If you want more functionality than a plain text editor offers, use an HTML editor instead.
HTML editors recognize code and are able to identify coding errors before you launch the file.
They can also add closing tags you forget and highlight broken links. They recognize and
accommodate other coding languages such as CSS, PHP, and JavaScript. 
The many HTML editors on the market vary from basic to professional levels. If you are new to
writing web pages, one of the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors might work
the best for you. Some editors show only the code, but some allow you to toggle between coding
views and visual views. Here are a few of the many HTML web editors available:
 Komodo IDE and its user-friendly interface are suitable for both beginning and advanced
web developers. Komodo IDE's autocomplete feature is particularly handy when you're
writing code for common elements such as links. The software supports color coding of
different coding languages such as HTML, CSS, and many others. Komodo IDE runs on
Windows, Mac, and Linux
 CoffeeCup HTML Editor is especially useful for new developers who are more
interested in learning to code than in a visual interface. This robust editor comes with
templates and has validation checkers to help keep your code free of errors. It includes
code completion and supports other coding languages you might use in conjunction with
HTML. The software highlights errors, explains why they appeared, and tells you how to
fix them. CoffeeCup HTML Editor runs on Windows.

 Mobirise is an HTML editor for people who don't want to get involved with code. It is
all about picking a theme and then dragging and dropping elements on the page. Add text
just as you would in a regular text editor and insert images, videos, or icons—all without
writing any code; Mobirise does that part for you. Mobirise is available for Windows and
Mac, and it is free.
Web Browsers
Websites can look different from browser to browser, so testing your web pages to make sure
they look and function as intended is crucial. Chrome, Firefox, Safari (Mac), Opera, and Edge
(Windows) are the most popular browsers.
You need to test your pages for appearance and function in mobile browsers, too. Most desktop
browsers offer the ability to view websites in variously sized windows. For example, a wealth of
testing tools is available in Google Chrome at View > Developer > Developer Tools. Select the
smartphone icon in the upper left of the developer window to see any page in differently sized
windows and mobile operating systems.
Graphics Editor
The type of graphics editor you need depends on your website. Adobe Photoshop is the gold
standard, but you might not need that much power—plus, you might need a vector graphics
program for logo and illustration work. A few graphics editors to look at for basic web
development include:
 GIMP is a free, open-source photo-editing program that provides many of the features of
its more expensive competitors. As open source software, it is available for Windows,
Mac, and Linux.
 Photoshop Elements for the Mac and PC is a light version of its namesake but has plenty
of features.
 Corel PaintShop Pro for PCs has almost all the tools you find in Photoshop in an easy-
to-use interface.
 Inkscape for Windows, Mac, and Linux is a free vector graphics editor. This alternative
to the pricier Adobe Illustrator has more than enough capabilities for simple design work
and web graphics.
FTP Client
You need an FTP (file transfer protocol) client to transfer your HTML files and supporting
images and graphics to your web server. FTP is available via the command line in Windows,
Macintosh, and Linux, but a dedicated FTP client is much easier to use. The top FTP
clients include:
 FileZilla (free) is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It supports drag-and-drop file
transfers and has a pause and resume feature for uploading large fi
 Cyberduck is free, open-source, cross-platform software known for its seamless
integration with external editors and its attractive user interface.
 Free FTP and Direct FTP are made by the same company. Free FTP is a minimalistic
client that meets basic file transfer needs. Direct FTP is a premium version that offers
advanced features. Both versions are supported by Windows 7, 8 and Vista, but only
Direct FTP is suitable for Windows 10.

 Transmit is a premium, Mac-only FTP client. It facilitates unusually fast transfers and
supports Amazon CloudFront.
 Cute FTP is a powerful premium FTP client you can use to make up to 100 transfers at
the same time. It is considered to be one of the most secure FTP clients available.
Best Examples of Website Goals and Objectives
Saying “we want a better website” is like saying, “we want a better business”. But what exactly
does “a better business” mean? Do you want to increase revenue? Maximize profitability? Or
maybe improve customer satisfaction? This could mean a number of different things for different
people in different situations. Unfortunately, simply wanting a better website is not a clear
objective and many professionals end up learning the hard way that solely stating so won’t
correlate to business results.
Are Your Goals SMART?
In my article, How to set SMART Website Goals to Reach Business Objectives, I advocate the
use of the SMART model for setting Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely
goals. Good executives manage by numbers. Websites should be no exception (check out UX
Statistics you should know). There must be clarity in your website goals and concrete desired
business results, or it will fail.
SMART Goal Examples
Now that you know the benefits of SMART website objectives, let’s look at some of the most
common website objectives for specific departments. Remember to apply the SMART model to
any and all goals. To give you a jumping off point, I’ve prepared a free worksheet with many
common goals using the SMART model: Here are SMART website goals by department with a
quick recap of their common needs:
 Marketing– drive traffic, engage prospects, generate leads and re-engage existing customers
 Sales– help close sales by validating and supporting sales team communications
 Customer Support – improve customer satisfaction through better service
 Webmasters– simplify and optimize content updates and website management
 IT– integrate with other systems; meet security, performance and scalability requirements
 Operations– reduce costs by streamlining and automating workflows and tasks
 HR– attract and recruit new employees and support current employees
 C-Suite – grow the company’s bottom line and increase profitability
Marketing Website Goals
Marketing departments typically want the company website to attract and engage more
prospects, generate more leads, better support the company brand or raise awareness. Some
common marketing website goals include:
1. Generate More Qualified Leads
This is arguably the most popular goal for business websites that have lead generation as their
main purpose. This goal is best for companies that want to get more sales leads through
improving their website’s marketing performance. To measure lead increase, I recommend
setting a percentage rate increase as opposed to an absolute lead count. This accounts for
monthly traffic fluctuations and allows for meaningful historical comparisons. Also, make sure
to track qualified leads versus total general leads and set specifications as to what is considered a
qualified lead. Doing so will also measure the quality of leads you are getting.
Example: Increase the number of monthly qualified leads by 20% (qualified lead: decision
maker; headquartered in the U.S., revenue of $10M+).
2. Improve Lead Conversion Rate
This measures the ability of a website to capture information of a visitor and convert them into a
prospect (measured as a percentage of website visitors who become prospects). This goal is good
for companies that want to focus on the website’s ability to convert and is a great goal to set for
inbound (content) marketing campaigns. This goal can also help measure changes in the quality
of traffic. For this type of goal, it is crucial to know your website’s current conversion rate. This
way, you can determine a realistic percentage increase. Example: Increase the website’s
conversion rate by 5% (with the same amount of traffic).
3. Increase Awareness
This goal lends to measuring how effective your website is in educating users about your new
products or services when you are not necessarily “selling” online. This works well for websites
that serve an informational purpose but don’t necessarily need to generate leads or capture
information, such as: micro-sites for new product launches, political and government websites or
non-profit websites dedicated to raising awareness around a certain cause. The only reliable way
to measure this goal is by surveying users before and after a redesign on how well they
understand the new product or service (brands) or cause (non-profits). Example: Improve new
product awareness by 10% (measured by surveying before and after). 
What are organizational goals?
Organizational goals are strategic objectives that a company's management establishes to outline
expected outcomes and guide employees' efforts.
There are many advantages to establishing organizational goals. They guide employee efforts,
justify a company's activities and existence, define performance standards,
provide constraints for pursuing unnecessary goals and function as behavioral incentives.
For the goals to have business merit, organizations must craft a strategic plan for choosing and
meeting them. A company's big picture strategy also includes organizational goals.
Why is having organizational goals important?
Goals can help a business grow and achieve compliance, and establish its big picture financial
objectives. Organizations set specific goals to help measure their progress and determine the
tasks that must be improved.
Goals need to be the following:
 specific,
 measurable,
 achievable,
 relevant and
 Timely.
Together, these criteria form SMART goals, which is a framework businesses use to set
organizational goals.
Types of organizational goals
There are three main types of organizational goals:
1. Strategic goals
These are goals -- often big picture, qualitative, long-term goals -- an organization aims to
achieve. They may also be referred to as strategic goals.
Strategic goals detail a company's objectives as described in its mission statement or in public
statements, such as a corporate charter or annual reports. They help to build the organization's
public image and reputation. Such goals are often qualitative and harder to measure.
2. Tactical goals
These are smaller picture, qualitative goals -- often with a quantitative element -- that focus on
transforming official goals into operational goals. These are team goals.
Tactical goals bridge the gap between strategic and operative goals. They help connect
measurable everyday business processes to the big picture goals outlined in a company's strategic
plan.
3. Operative goals
These are goals with measurable steps required to achieve a desired outcome. They're often
smaller team goals or individual goals.
Operative goals are the actual, concrete steps an organization intends to take to achieve its
purpose. A business's operative goals often don't parallel its official goals; for example, while a
nonprofit volunteer organization's main official goal may be community service, limited funding
might mean that its operative goal of fundraising will take precedence.
Operative goals are often short-term goals organizations seek to achieve through their operating
policies and undertakings and are measured quantitatively. Their success is based on metrics.
Companies can outline the specific steps they need to take to achieve operative goals.
Steps for setting organizational goals
A company can take the following general steps when setting up organizational goals:
1. Assess the state of the business. Examine the current state of the business and external
factors that affect it, such as industry trends. A SWOT analysis can help identify a company's
-- or team within the company -- strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
A PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental factors) analysis
can be useful for accounting for external factors. If setting operational goals, a team might
cross-reference its strengths and weaknesses against the larger goals set by the organization.
2. Establish each goal. Decide how the business or team wants to use this information to
improve itself. Brainstorm goals and choose those goals that capitalize on opportunities for
growth.
3. Prioritize goals. Establish a time frame and delegate the goals to different teams or team
members based on responsibility and ranking. Consider external factors when determining
goal deadlines.
4. Establish measurement metrics. Determine how the progress of goals will be measured.
Some goals may more readily lend themselves to quantitative measurement. Set tangible
benchmarks that teams can reach.
5. Integrate goals with processes. Incorporate the goals into the team's or business's way of
working and develop methods to achieve them.
6. Communicate goals to those involved. Share the goals with others who weren't
immediately involved in devising the goals and look for ways that different teams can work
together to reach goals. Make goals visible and communicate them in a clear and concise
fashion.
7. Evaluate progress. As time goes by and progress is made or circumstances change, evaluate
progress using predefined metrics, and revise goals and optimize processes if appropriate.
Encourage feedback to help assess goals and team performance.
Business Requirements Analysis
Business requirements should inform every investment in new software and technological
infrastructure. You don’t launch a new project, purchase a new piece of enterprise software,
or develop a new process unless it’s in response to a core business need.
A business requirements analysis is all about identifying, analyzing, and documenting the
key requirements related to a business problem that needs to be solved or an organizational
objective that needs to be met.
This is the foundation of a successful procurement project:
 First, define each requirement clearly so that you can assess the time and
resources you will need to allocate to the project
 This first step will help you understand the difference between need-to-have
features and nice-to-have features in the solution you’re looking for
 It is also the first step on the way to making the vendor selection process as
smooth as possible.
And while Identifying business requirements may seem simple enough, a thorough analysis
of these requirements involves several important steps:

1. Gathering stakeholder requirements

2. Categorizing stakeholder requirements

3. Analyzing and interpreting requirements

4. Documenting requirements

What is a business requirements document (BRD)?

A business requirements document is a report detailing everything a new project requires for
success. This document outlines project objectives, what’s expected throughout the project
lifecycle, and what’s required to accomplish the project. 
The seven components of a BRD are:
1. Executive summary
2. Project objectives
3. Project scope
4. Business requirements
5. Key stakeholders
6. Project constraints 
7. Cost-benefit analysis

What should a business requirements document include?

Your business requirements document template should provide detail about your project, but it
should also be concise. The goal of the BRD is to give readers the most information in the least
amount of words. 
Many people may read a BRD, including stakeholders involved in the project, executives you
need approval from, and clients influenced by the end results. Learn more about each component
to include in your template below.
1. Executive summary
The executive summary is a high-level statement outlining what your project is and its purpose.
Those who don’t have time to read the BRD in its entirety should understand what you plan to
accomplish by reading your executive summary. 
Even though your executive summary is the first thing in your BRD, you should actually only
write it after writing the other sections. That way, you can review everything and ensure you’ve
created a comprehensive opening statement. 
Read: How to write an executive summary, with examples
2. Project objectives
Your project objectives are the business goals you want to achieve by putting your project into
action. It’s important to state your project objectives before kicking off any work so you can use
them to measure your progress.
List your project objectives as SMART goals to ensure that they’re:
 Specific
 Measurable
 Achievable
 Relevant
 Time-specific
Measuring your project objectives can help determine whether you need to adjust your workflow
to better meet your goals. For example, if one of your objectives was to increase your customer
base by 10% by the end of the quarter, you can look at your numbers when the quarter ends and
clearly see whether you hit your goal or not. You can then look at the actions you took along the
way and determine the reasons why you may have fallen short.
3. Project scope
Your project scope communicates the boundaries of your project on your business requirements
document. By defining your project scope, you’ll keep everyone on the same page and
prevent scope creep, which is when your project expands outside of the boundaries you set for it
and becomes hard to control. 
Details to outline in your project scope include:
 Timeline
 Budget
 Deliverables
 Project requirements
 Project team
You can also make a list of project exclusions—or things you specifically want to leave out of
your project—like business processes or risky strategies you want others to avoid when they’re
working on the project. 
4. Business requirements
The business requirements are the meat of your BRD template. In this section, you’ll list the
actions required to accomplish your project. Depending on the project complexity, this list may
be just a few items or it may be extensive. 
In addition to listing your requirements and describing them, rank them by priority and assign
each item a level of importance based on how critical they are. This will help others understand
which requirements they need to complete first. 
If one of your requirements is to code a website, you may assign this task as a number one
priority. You can also label this task as highly critical because, without coding your website, you
won’t have a foundation to complete other business requirements. 
5. Key stakeholders
Project stakeholders include anyone with an interest in your project. These are likely the people
who will read your BRD template to understand what the project is about. Your key stakeholders
may be:
 Team members working on the project
 Project managers leading the project
 Executives approving the project
 Clients influenced by the finished project
In this section, list the names and job roles of each stakeholder and describe their duty in relation
to the project. This section will give everyone clarity on who else is involved and can
improve team communication.
Read: What is a project stakeholder analysis and why is it important?
6. Project constraints
You likely presented an overview of your project constraints within your project scope, but here,
you’ll explain these boundaries in more detail. When the reader reviews this section, they should
see the shape of the project and its limits.
Project constraints may include:
 Project risks
 Team availability
 Resources
 Project dependencies
 Deadlines
 Project budget
Project constraints help stakeholders visualize the complexity of the project and how easy it will
be to achieve project objectives. Anyone involved in the project should first review the project
constraints.
7. Cost-benefit analysis
Ending your business requirements document with a cost-benefit analysis is a strategic move. If
you’re using your BRD to get approval for your project, this section may be the deciding factor.
Clients and executives care about the project objective, but if you can’t prove that you’ll make a
profit, then all is lost. 
To create a cost-benefit analysis:
 Describe all the costs associated with your project
 Explain the associated benefits
 Write the total expected cost of your project
 Estimate the expected ROI by subtracting your estimated costs from your estimated income
What is the difference between business requirements and functional requirements?

You’ll often hear functional requirements come up when discussing business requirements, but
it’s important to know the difference between the two.
 A business requirements document discusses what your project requirements are. This
document offers a high-level view and gives stakeholders an overview of the project in its
entirety. 
 A functional requirements document (FRD) provides a detailed description of how to
perform specific tasks within the project. Think of these documents like playing a board
game; the BRD is the box, explaining the game and convincing you to buy it. The FRD,
on the other hand, are the instructions teaching you how to play the game. 
Besides functional requirements, there are:
 User requirements: These requirements are more detailed than the BRD, and they explain
what the user can do with the finished deliverables.
 Product requirements: These requirements are more detailed than both business and user
requirements. Product requirements explain the finished project’s purpose and features. This
document is a guide for teams when building and marketing the product.
 Non-functional requirements: These requirements are the most detailed type of requirements—
equally detailed to functional requirements. They explain how the project should operate and the
finished project’s intended user experience.